WebNovels

Chapter 161 - 161. Metang's Technique

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The brilliant light of evolution gradually faded away, revealing the transformed Pokemon that now floated before Roy.

What appeared in front of him was a sleek, white metallic robot with a body shaped like a flying saucer. It possessed two powerful arms ending in massive iron claws, glowing red eyes, a golden spike protruding from both its face and back, and two pairs of golden sharp blades extending diagonally from the left and right sides of its body.

Pokemon: Metang

Gender: None

Type: Psychic + Steel

Ability: Light Metal

Skills: Iron Defense, Iron Head, Bullet Punch, Metal Claw, Confusion, Zen Headbutt, Light Screen, Psychic (all proficient)

Comprehensive Evaluation: B-level

Popularity Value: 24,500

Roy knew that news of Beldum's participation in the school battles and his ownership of a Pseudo-legendary Pokemon had already been uploaded to the school forum. With his current fame combined with the incredible rarity of Pseudo-legendary Pokemon, this news would spread rapidly throughout the trainer community. By the time word got out completely, he would likely earn at least hundreds of thousands of popularity points. While it wasn't a massive amount compared to his recent gains, every bit helped.

However, Roy's primary focus was on understanding the actual experience of Metang's evolution and what it meant for his team's capabilities.

"During the Beldum period, it was only C-level under normal circumstances. After evolution, it suddenly jumped to B-level. The potential of this species can only be described as befitting a Pseudo-legendary Pokemon," Roy mused with genuine amazement.

Beldum had only been part of his team for half a month, and despite Roy providing access to numerous top-tier resources, the speed of its progression was genuinely frightening. At the same time, his Lucario was still maintaining its C-level rating, which put the achievement into perspective.

It was no wonder that Pseudo-legendary Pokemon were held in such high regard by trainers around the world, with many calling them existences comparable to divine beings.

"Meta," Metang floated closer to Roy, staring at him with its quiet, glowing red eyes.

"Well..." Since Metang's metallic face showed no expression whatsoever, Roy couldn't immediately understand what it was trying to communicate. It wasn't until he used his aura abilities to sense the Pokemon's emotional state that he realized Metang wanted him to examine its body.

There was a distinct feeling of unease coming from the newly evolved Pokemon.

"Uneasy?" Roy asked with confusion. "Evolution is supposed to be a good thing. Why would you be feeling uneasy about it?"

"Meta! Meta!" Metang responded by gently patting its own head with its iron claws, clearly expressing distress and concern.

Roy suddenly understood the source of its anxiety. Metang was uncomfortable with having gained an additional brain and was struggling to adapt to the dual-processing way of thinking that came with its new form.

An extra brain? Roy remembered the documented information about Metang species and suddenly realized what was happening.

After evolution, Metang would possess two brains, with their consciousness connected through magnetic nerve cells to achieve unity of will and purpose. With the addition of this second brain, Metang's mental strength had increased dramatically.

This was also the reason why it had suddenly awakened so many Psychic-type moves upon evolving.

"Meta... Meta..." Metang rubbed its two iron claws together anxiously, expressing deep concern about whether it might develop split personality disorder or schizophrenia.

Roy patted Metang's head with an amused expression, producing a metallic 'clang' sound, and said reassuringly, "This is completely normal after evolution - all members of your species go through this same experience. None of them develop schizophrenia, so you don't need to be afraid. You'll get used to this new way of thinking soon enough. I should probably mention now that when you eventually evolve into Metagross, you'll have four brains to manage."

After hearing this explanation, Metang's anxious mood became even more pronounced rather than calming down.

The Pokemon's logic was sound: just because other members of its species were fine didn't necessarily mean it would be okay too. After all, the incredibly rare 'Shiny' condition had manifested in its case - what if it also developed the equally unusual condition of schizophrenia?

Roy found himself speechless in the face of this reasoning. What Metang was saying made perfect sense, and he couldn't argue against its concerns.

After its evolution, Metang had clearly become much more cautious and analytical in its thinking. Having an extra brain didn't necessarily improve its raw intelligence, but it enabled multi-core processing, enhanced computational power, and broadened its perspective on problem-solving.

Unexpectedly, this neurological enhancement had actually intensified its naturally cautious personality traits.

Feeling helpless but understanding Metang's need for reassurance, Roy could only comply with its request. He used his aura powers to conduct a thorough examination, checking every aspect of Metang's mental state to ensure that no secondary personality had developed.

Metang was visibly relieved after the examination and embraced Roy affectionately with its metallic arms.

"Meta! Meta!" it communicated, essentially saying, "I'm counting on you to check again next time too!"

Roy felt somewhat helpless about its excessive caution, but the interaction had sparked an interesting train of thought.

Two brains? The possibility of schizophrenia?

Roy stroked his chin thoughtfully, becoming lost in contemplation. The unique "multi-core brain structure" of the Metagross evolutionary line wasn't a secret in the Pokemon world, and most trainers had grown accustomed to it over the years. After all, the dramatically increased computational power was universally considered a beneficial trait, and no one had seriously considered the potential for personality disorders.

It was only Roy's particularly cautious Metang, with its unique thought processes, that had raised this unusual concern.

Metang's dual brains were connected through magnetic nerve cells, which integrated their will into a unified consciousness. If those neural connections were somehow disrupted, there would definitely be the kind of consciousness split that Metang was worried about.

The concept of two separate consciousnesses coexisting in the same body... Roy felt like he had glimpsed something important, a potential breakthrough in understanding Pokemon psychology and training methods.

This could lead to an entirely new approach to training Pokemon in the Metagross family line.

After accomplishing his goal of helping Beldum evolve into Metang, Roy decided to stop holding back in the placement battles.

In his next match against Cade, he directly summoned Electabuzz to the field.

Under his opponent's frustrated gaze that seemed to ask "Are you even trying to make this fair?", Electabuzz won the championship through absolute domination. Roy easily secured first place in the opening placement test.

Later that evening, back at his villa, Roy signed for a package delivery from the Guangdong Provincial Steel Gym that had been held by the property management office.

The package contained the instructional manual for the legendary 'Weightless Technique.'

When Roy opened the package, the first item he noticed was an unremarkable-looking stone.

"This is..." Roy picked up the stone and immediately noticed something unusual about it. "Such a light stone - the weight doesn't seem right."

He quickly identified what the object was: a Float Stone.

This mysterious item could miraculously reduce a Pokemon's weight when held. It was yet another example of Pokemon world physics that would have made Newton roll over in his grave.

Roy set aside the Float Stone and picked up the thick instruction manual, reading the introduction on the front page carefully.

Prerequisites for practicing the Weightless Technique:

Must possess the Light Metal ability

Move: Autotomize, proficiency must reach Master level

Move: Rock Polish, proficiency must reach Master level

Move: Psych Up, proficiency must reach Master level

Information about these three moves immediately came to Roy's mind from his extensive Pokemon knowledge.

Autotomize - Move effect: The user cuts away unnecessary parts of its body to sharply increase its speed.

Rock Polish - Move effect: The user polishes its body parts to reduce air resistance and greatly increase speed.

Psych Up - Move effect: The user hypnotizes itself to copy any stat changes made by the target.

Training Manual Steps:

First, use the Float Stone as an assistive tool while developing in-depth mastery of the Light Metal ability.

Second, use Autotomize and Rock Polish simultaneously, combined with the ability, to reduce weight to the absolute minimum.

Finally, through extended use of Psych Up, allow the body to remember this "weight alteration" so that during battle conditions, the Pokemon can enter the "weightless state" instantaneously.

Of course, calling it a "weightless state" was somewhat exaggerated. The Pokemon would still have mass, but it would be dramatically reduced.

For example, the Steel-type gym leader's Scizor weighed only three kilograms during battle despite maintaining exactly the same power and ability stats as normal. Anyone could imagine how incredibly fast such a Scizor would be in combat.

In Elite Four qualifying tournaments, this particular Scizor had earned the nickname 'Red Lightning' due to its terrifying speed capabilities.

Even among the current active Elite Four members, very few could match it in terms of pure speed alone.

The thick manual contained not only explanations of the principles and concepts behind the technique, but also written guides for learning the three required moves: Autotomize, Rock Polish, and Psych Up.

This presented Roy with a significant problem.

"Making Pokemon learn skills by reading books," Roy muttered with disbelief.

Compared to the TMs he could exchange through his system, with their holographic simulation teaching in consciousness space, this traditional method of learning through written manuals seemed incredibly primitive and inefficient.

Roy was not enthusiastic about using such outdated methods.

Learning moves this way would require at least six months to a year before achieving 'Master level' proficiency in these three techniques.

Setting down the book with obvious distaste, Roy spent six million points to exchange for Master-level TMs of all three moves from his system.

While he was at it, he also acquired the Ghost Z-Crystal that he had been wanting for some time.

In an instant, his point total dropped to less than thirty million remaining.

After completing these exchanges, Roy didn't rush into action but instead carefully read through the entire training manual again.

"The Weightless Technique has obvious weaknesses," Roy analyzed critically.

Success through weight reduction could also mean defeat through the same principle.

Losing weight would genuinely increase a Pokemon's speed to incredible levels, but at the same time, it would make the Pokemon lose resistance to airflow-based attacks.

Moves like Hurricane, Heat Wave, Icy Wind, and Blizzard would become much more effective against a weightless Pokemon.

Furthermore, in real combat situations, weight sometimes translated directly to power.

For example, Jaxon's Swampert had nearly defeated Electabuzz with its "Hydro Pump" technique by leaping high into the air and using gravity combined with its massive size to enhance the move's devastating impact.

Ultimately, the Weightless Technique had been specifically created by that gym leader for the Scizor species. For Metang, which also excelled in physical strength-based combat, there were subtle incompatibilities in the technique's application.

It was similar to how Lucario had been able to perfect the 'Aura Boxing' technique because it shared the same type as Roy's father's Pokemon, Lucario.

In contrast, when Elekid had tried to learn techniques designed for other Pokemon, it had been forced to develop its own "Battle Continuation" fighting style because the original "Sleep Combat" technique simply didn't suit its natural abilities.

"How can I modify and improve this training manual to better suit Metang?" Roy wondered aloud.

Roy closed his eyes and focused intensely. He had recently studied training philosophies and techniques from various gyms across the country, gaining tremendous inspiration from their diverse approaches.

Countless thoughts and innovative ideas began colliding and combining in his mind.

The Light Metal ability... The unique dual-brain structure of the Metagross evolutionary family... The possibility of controlled schizophrenia and parallel consciousness processing... The weightless combat state...

After thirty minutes of intense brainstorming, a bolt of inspiration suddenly connected all these disparate elements together into a coherent whole.

Roy's eyes snapped open, and the corners of his mouth curved upward in a confident smile.

"Perfect," he said with satisfaction.

"A training technique that belongs exclusively to Metang."

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